The Next Installment of The Dark Tower

I just finished reading the last book in The Dark Tower, a 7-volume series by Stephen King. It’s replaced The Lord of the Rings’ position as my favorite story. Yes, my favorite story. Not my favorite book (or series of books), but my favorite story: my favorite sequence of fictional events, of any length. The Dark Tower’s story is told in such a masterful way that even before reaching the end of the series, I enjoyed its story more than that of any other. I’d say that at the end of The Wastelands (about halfway through the series), during the battle of riddles with Blaine the Mono, is when I reached this conclusion.

The Dark Tower, an epic fantasy tale whose protagonists are a Gunslinger, a recovering heroin addict, a young boy and a black woman who is missing both of her legs, simply rocks. Its villains are even more interesting. There’s nothing else like it.

That being said, I’m at a loss as to what I’m going to read now. I thought the experience of The Dark Tower was finished, or, in the words of Stephen King, that I’d reached “the clearing at the end of the path” with respect to The Dark Tower. I’m eternally grateful to announce that I’m *not* in fact finished with this story, as there is yet another installment forthcoming. That’s right, an eighth book.

In the interest of not making this post a spoiler, I won’t reveal too many details here about the plot of this next installment, only that it will take place somewhere in between the series’ third and fourth books. It’s already been written and is expected to be published in 2012.

The announcement of this next book was made by Stephen King on his website and can be found here.